Mason Greenwood - a disgrace

We don’t actually know she was ever pressing charges. He wasn’t actually charged UNTIL it was revealed they were back living together and apparently had been for months. The statement doesn't say the alleged victim had dropped charges but that a key witness had pulled out and new evidence had come to light. It would seem odd if they were back living together and she had only just dropped out would it not?

It's where the whole thing is a mess. Either he is guilty but there is a lack of nailed on evidence and what has been released is such that it makes a fair trial impossible so moving ahead would be pointless or he is innocent and this has been a malicious act (either by her trying to get back at him or as he dad claims by a hacker) which isn't good either way

 

The big problem is the whole system just isn't setup for the modern world. It's set up to value the privacy of everyone involved by neither party speaking and the Police/CPS not speaking but in the age of the internet, privacy is very hard to keep even when you have the situation with the two players who play for London club (One whose had their case dropped, the other who is still under investigation) where the media can't name them and the clubs can't suspend them as part of that the names still leak out. This cone of silence just allows for opinions to be formed on partial information and even for false info to be taken as fact and its going to hang over his head if the silence continues and hang over hers (as she is now being accused of being the witness that dropped out and that's leading to people saying she has been telling lies when we don't know if she was ever accusing him of anything, certainly we don't know she pressed charges and even if both of those things are true we don't know what the new evidence is so we don't know she was telling lies).

It's all a mess that's damaging everyone associated with the situation and it won't be the last time there is a similar situation where the way the system is setup in a modern world causes the same situation. There has to be situations where all parties but especially the Police/CPS have to be able and encouraged to speak to clear things up so it's not constantly doing damage to everyone even when the outcome should be an end to the damage

 

The thing that annoyed me most about the social media reaction (and even some people on this thread) is that one of the few statements we got from anyone connected to the situation was from her dad who outright claimed she didn't make the post and was hacked. That statement alone should have at least given people a cause to take a step back and at least question the supposed evidence but it largely gets ignored.

I would imagine most of us have photos on our phones of injuries we have picked up after all its often easier to see them by taking a photo than trying to twist our bodies into positions to be able to see them or even see them in a mirror and if we were hacked someone without context could publish them and present them as something. The bust-lip one is the one that certainly left me to have questions, I've been to a number of cons so have been around cosplayers and there is a stage makeup feel to it as if maybe the video is actually of her getting ready for a Halloween party of similar. When you have things like this and audio intentionally edited to look bad but not actually show a crime and someone close to her saying she was hacked it should have people saying 'I don't have enough evidence and can't verify what I do have to make a judgement' but rather everyone is eager to pick a side.

I actually said on Twitter to someone who was ranting about how the evidence was clear that if Mason is guilty that it's people like that who have no doubt helped the case be dropped. It makes him getting a fair trial almost impossible because they have helped spread a narrative that prejudices people and that just raises the bar that the evidence has to clear. It's part of the reason why they try and keep these things secret u until they go to court, it's why we only heard about Mendy once it went to court, and why both the player who had the charges dropped and the one currently under investigation hasn't officially been named as they are hard enough cases to prove anyway without the internet making it even harder.


If he is guilty or not though it does show that clubs need to do a much better job in the education of their players. The audio may not show a crime but it does show him trying to pressure her into sex and no-one, be you male or female should be trying to pressure someone into having sex. And with the money and prestige that can come with football that leaves them even more prone to using the power dynamic that causes to use that power to get what they want and it needs the clubs to (and society in general) to be better at education people better so they know that isn't acceptable

 

The strange thing with the Key Witnesses withdrawing is despite what people are assuming it's almost certainly not her. A couple of articles have mentioned that she had been requesting the case be dropped as far back as April. He wasn't charged until October (and that was largely triggered because she had been back living with him for months which was a breach of his parole) so she wasn't cooperating with the police even before it was handed to the CPS to make their decision if to proceed. It seems unlikely that they were relying on someone as a key witness who hadn't been cooperating and had been asking for it to be dropped and who when he was being charged was sitting with his Family. It strikes me the CPS were relying on 3rd Parties as witnesses and some evidence has come up that undermines them so they have pulled out rather than having their reputation ruined (and maybe even later sued)

 

I'm not sure it's the legal system that's really the fault for the low conviction rate. The problem is more that victims of domestic and/or sexual abuse usually don't come forward until well after it has happened and by that point, any physical evidence has been lost so you are then relying on people's word and maybe evidence that is hard to verify which in a criminal case where it has to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt is a problem. The only way you can get convictions higher is for people to report it immediately because you can't just 'believe the victim' and convict on that because that's massively dangerous and open to abuse.

On the whole Prince Andrew thing people need to realise that he was facing a Civil not a criminal case. That doesn't require the accuser to prove a crime was committed. In the UK it just requires the accuser to be able to present a strong enough argument that it's more likely to be true than false but in the US it's more weighted to the accused to prove they didn't do it. In a civil case if there is a settlement on the table that you can afford your legal team will largely recommend you take it unless you have proof that absolutely proves you are innocent (Such as CCTV footage that shows you being halfway across the other world when it is said to have happened). In Prince Andrews's case it was even more weighted against him as she was granted a Jury trial (Civil cases more often than not are the judge's decision) and foreign nobility against an American was never going to play well with a Jury (and I'm not sure anyone would call Andrew charismatic so he wasn't going to win them over), especially against the backdrop of the criminal cases again Epstein and Maxwell. It would have been different if it was a criminal case and he had reached an out-of-court settlement, that would have been him using his money to avoid justice but anyone settling a civil case is just being smart in whats little more than a crapshoot

 

In his own ego?